There’s something that makes game devs want to tinker with the French Revolution… Azure Flame filled it with Magical Girls in Banner of the Maid. Spiders filled it with robots in Steelrising. Studio Imugi seeks to do them one better by imaging a Paris filled with giant robots — Colossi, fighting for the King, the People, and/or France itself.
While B:AMR has a tactical battle component reminiscent of old Avalon Hill wargames, the main game takes place in the overland map, where you battle for the hearts and minds of the people of France by spreading propaganda denouncing whichever factions you don’t join. You have the choice of supporting King Louis XIV, fighting alongside the bourgeoise in the Moderates, or fighting with the common folk as a Jacobin. In the demo, however, you cannot support the king. Napoleon himself joined with the Jacobins; I chose the Moderates in the demo.
Controlling the various provinces of France allows you to reap coin and phlogiston, the magical fluid that runs the Colossi. It also opens up recruitment — recruiting more battalions and officers, and building more Colossi, are key to winning battles. Peasant armies armed with nothing more than sticks and pitchforks won’t be anything but wine squeezed between the toes of your giant warbot, but when you come across another Colossi… you’ll want some cannon and cavalry to take it down.
The plot takes place over painted backdrops and an overall art style that reminds me of the old portraits of the Founding Fathers, as intended.
The founding fathers of the French Revolution show up in all of these period games; I’m getting pretty familiar with their names and personalities. The war hero, the Marquis de Lafayette. Robespierre, the tireless champion of the people. Louis-Antoine de Sant-Just is a woman in this game. Jean Paul Marat.
It’s sad that you have to kill some of them, but some can be recruited, and it’s all for the greater good. At least until the guillotine comes out.
The demo shows the game is still very much a work in progress. I’ve played a lot of tactical games, so the battlefield got figured out fairly quickly. The overworld portion… I struggled. I’m sure that will all be sorted out by the time it gets to Early Access.
But given that… is this the best tactical wargame set in the French Revolution? Banner of the Maid, for all its cheese, is a tight, extremely tactical game requiring a lot of forethought and planning, as well as some trial and error. This game’s tactical battles seemed much more straightforward. There is a resource called “heat” that builds up as your Colossi or other units move which tends to add an exhaustion mechanic that prioritizes finishing fights quickly. As well as the usual kind of damage, graphically represented by battalions losing people (always with one who isn’t quite dead and picks their weapon back up).
Positioning is important. Cavalry units have a really nicely implemented charge mechanic. Tactical games typically have a rock/paper/scissors thing going on, but if it was part of this game, I didn’t see it. But then, there’s so much that isn’t explained.
The game has good bones. Whether or not it will be a good tactical game will have to wait a few months to see. I don’t really think adding giant mechs was necessary, but it does set it apart from other more historically accurate war games. In the meantime, Banner of the Maid can always use another playthrough.
